Locomotive Wiki talk:Manual of Style
Spelling, grammar and terminology section This part of the guideline is a carry over from the rules page. The rule to split the wiki's consistency down the middle came about because I pointed out a few mistakes HDF made, and this was the compromise he came up with. I don't really like it for how difficult it makes editing, but it may of course be kept if that is the consensus. Just filling you all in on its conception. ;) Starfleet Academy (Messages) 05:09, September 1, 2013 (UTC) :Most wiki users certainly are from the USA, but there are other users from the UK or Australia, who are unfamiliar with the other languages terms. I think the languages should be localized to the locomotives, as otherwise edit wars will start brewing with the British/Australian user saying it's bogie! and the American user saying no, it's truck! or so on. That just makes it easier for the users editing the page. If we are going to have 1 definite language, there needs to be a translation page so that users unfamiliar with the proper terms can translate British to American English. 05:22, September 1, 2013 (UTC) ::I realize there's the adjustment issue. I hate somethings that American English includes. However, on the other hand I think the Yanks have it right in certain areas. Wikipedia does have the article American and British English spelling differences; what if we linked to that? ::The "localization" idea is fine, but it assumes that Americans are only going to edit US articles, and Brits are only going to edit UK articles. And what happens on a... Russian locomotive's article? :) Starfleet Academy (Messages) 05:41, September 1, 2013 (UTC) :::I think that we should use British English, as it is simpler, or at least offer a simple treanslation service for those of us who use British English, not a complex guide. :::Kerry Stapleton (talk) - User ::::The Americans would disagree with you on "simpler". :) My problem is, while I like grammar and spelling, I'm no grammarian; I'll look around the internet for a simpler version, but creating a translation service on LW would be rather difficult and inaccurate. Starfleet Academy (Messages) 06:37, September 1, 2013 (UTC) :::::Try out this instant translator: http://www.translatebritish.com/index.php :::::Kerry Stapleton (talk) - User ::::::All we need is a page, sort of like the glossary with the respective British and American terms. 06:50, September 1, 2013 (UTC) (Reset indent) I know, I know. And for some reason it has kinda passed by me that the Wikipedia article isn't on our subject. It maybe possible. There are certainly other wikis that have done this, but they have more hands on deck... Starfleet Academy (Messages) 06:58, September 1, 2013 (UTC) :I'm glad the subject of articles not belonging to other dialect was brought up. First of all, we already have Thai articles. Second, I plan on working heavily on Russian and soviet Articles when I get the time and the things already on here have been satisfactorily fixed. Third, once the wiki is more well known, there may be people coming from all over. Think Germany, France, India, and South Africa as most likely. The more I think abut the language barrier, the more bummed out I get. This is supposed to be a world wide "one stop shop" for info on railroading all over the world, and that can't happen if language makes it impossible for anyone nt from an English speaking country to read it. Thre has to be something we can do to make it accessible to people from other countries heavy in railroad history. Any ideas? :Oh shoot, I forgot the Tildes... I don't think I even have a sig though, so we'll see how thi works. AltoonaRailfan (talk) 14:33, September 1, 2013 (UTC) ::Oooooh dear! Yes, this is a pain, Jacob. Happily, there is an easy fix though: see, and w:Project:Interlanguage link requests. This is a long way down the track, if you pardon the pun. When LW is in a good way, we can create an unlimited number of sub-subdomains, e.g. ru.locomotive.wikia.com (Russian) — when the wiki is created, one simply selects from a list of possible languages and many of the MediaWiki messages are created in the selected language —, and then translate the Russian based articles and add them to that wiki. The option for those like me that don't know other languages is Google Translate... ;) Starfleet Academy (Messages) 02:34, September 2, 2013 (UTC) :::Update: I'm going to mess everybody about by saying that this is an impossible task, and we should just stick to what is already in the MoS. I think there will be less of a problem with regard to edit wars if we just let the articles be localized. We've already got that to some degree let's not make the rebuild anymore difficult than it already is. :::For this reason I've rewritten the section in question so it could now be left, if people would be happy with that? :) Starfleet Academy (Messages) 07:23, September 2, 2013 (UTC) ::::I agree, and as well, i's not like Brits can't read US English, and vice versa, so it's not a dissaister. :::::I'm happy with this, I just think the page needs to say that if the locomotive isn't based in a country that uses British or American English, it should default to American English (unless it is in Europe, in which British would seem more logical.). 07:33, September 2, 2013 (UTC) ::::::@Kerry: Well, that's exactly right. As you said in a thread the other day, they're not different languages as such. (Paraphrased.) ::::::@Jsteel7: That does make sense. However, countries like Canada use Canadian English which is a combination of both. So, would it be better if we say that the default is American English only if the country of origin is not an English Speaking Nation? :) Starfleet Academy (Messages) 07:43, September 2, 2013 (UTC) (Reset indent)On the Canadian English, I thought we were using localized versions of English if they existed, and then defaulting to the most logical version if there isn't one (i.e. British for Europe and American for everywhere else). 08:06, September 2, 2013 (UTC) :Yes. Your post was ambiguous, so I needed a clarification. :) That sounds good to me, so I'll add that into the MoS. Starfleet Academy (Messages) 08:11, September 2, 2013 (UTC) ::Done. Starfleet Academy (Messages) 08:29, September 2, 2013 (UTC) Possible Images Section It would be nice to have a section about how to use use images; do we need special alignments or whatever, and how many do you reccomend per article - good for newer editors. If it came to it I could make it myself, but I ain't that that experiencend at making this kind of thing, so yeah. Kerry Stapleton (talk) :There are some notes on this at Locomotive Wiki:File use policy, but it is usually good to include a small amount of images, aligned to the right at a size of 250px. It is usually considered good to have no more than 6 - 8 images in an article, placing large galleries in a subpage. :